February 28, 2005

The BrainGate Neural Interface creates a direct link between a person’s brain and a computer, translating neural activity into action. Matthew Nagle, without use of his limbs but fitted with a BrainGate, can now play a videogame or change channels on TV using only his mind.

February 28, 2005

Nanochip Inc. has developed prototype arrays of atomic-force probes, tiny instruments used to read and write information at the molecular level and hopes to offer its first product by mid-2007. These arrays can record up to one terabit in a single square inch.

February 25, 2005

We are all but ready to build robots to fight our wars but far from prepared to resolve the cadre of attendant ethical questions.

It’s perfectly logical to put machines at risk before humans, clearing minefields and performing guard duty in hostile locales. But if war can be fought virtually without loss of human soldiers’ lives, it could jumble the entire strategic and political calculus of war.

February 25, 2005

The primarily amateur Internet audio medium known as podcasting may be the commercial Web’s next big thing.

Recent proliferation of portable iPods and other devices for storing and playing files in the MP3 audio format has created a mobile audience in this country – more than 11 million and growing – on whom podcasters are counting to listen to much more than downloaded songs and the occasional audio book.… read more

February 23, 2005

A study by UCLA neuroscientists featuring functional magnetic resonance imaging suggests for the first time that mirror neurons help people understand the intentions of others — a key component to social interaction.

The team found that Pre motor mirror neuron areas of the brain — areas active during the execution and the observation of an action — ascribe intentions to actions when presented within a context. Previously, these neurons… read more

February 22, 2005

Researchers have developed tools to solve many so-called intractable computer problems, at least in certain practical situations, by using methods that avoid searching the lengthy paths that occur in “heavy tails” of a path distribution.

One of the most effective approaches is to find a “backdoor set” — a small number of key variables whose values can be fixed in advance. In an airline scheduling problem with 10,000 variables,… read more

February 22, 2005

Nanoparticles of various sorts are already found in products like sunscreen, paint and inkjet paper. More exotic varieties offer promise in medicine for sensitive diagnostic tests and novel treatments: the detection of Alzheimer’s disease by finding a protein in spinal fluid, for instance, or nanoparticles that heat up and kill cancer cells.